TMV World Team

Fake it until you make it. Standard show biz advice. And salesman advice, too. And it applies to singing. Recently, a friend and fellow member in the forum was experimenting with what he called a "fake" sound in his voice and the result was more appropriate than what his "natural" sound was. Not because his natural sound is "bad," just different. And he had an insight that has also worked for me. He then realized that his "natural" sound is also "fake." And what led to this insight was that for a while, living in a different region, he had picked up and was able to "fake" the accent of that region, as well. Which, of course, meant his "natural" accent was also fake. And to paraphrase and honor the wisdom of fellow forum member, Jens, the entirety of the voice is made up. And most voices really do have quite a similar range, differing by a few notes at the bottom or top, although I think true bassos are rare and special. Operatically, a fach covers 2 octaves. Outside of opera, many voices can cover an average of 3 octaves and this tends to match the dynamic range of most human voices. Especially in popular music forms, where amplification is d' rigeur. This allows singers to go into parts of the range that would normally not be heard of an orchestra in a regular performance hall situation. So, I reviewed my ability to "fake" it. I can do several accents of English outside of the predominately southern accent I have. For I was born in California and lived there until I was 10 years old and we moved to Texas. And I have been in Texas for the past 40 years and it has had some affect on my accent. Yet, I can do a british accent, scottish, irish. Once in a blue moon, I can "fake" a little bit of New Zealander accent. Accents, like singing, are all vowel use and cadence. And of my own accent, people that were born and raised in Texas can tell that I was not born here, regardless of having been in this state longer than they have been alive. The two average questions are: You're not from Texas, are you? and; Where are you from? And I will get those questions more often because my use of cleaner vowels in singing is filtering into how I speak. A common greeting for me is "Howdy." But I pronounce it as h-ah-dee. When the natural texan accent is to have a dipthong of h - ah - oo - dee. So, I suggest, especially if you are enamored of a style of singing, to absolutely continue faking it. As long as it is not hurting your voice and you are on pitch, it is all "fair." Even opera singing is "fake." And before someone gets offended by that, I would like to point out that most opera singers do not get to the main roles and premieres in their careers until after at least 10 years of coaches telling them what sound to make, which is usually different than the sound they came in with. So, you can fake opera, blues, metal, country, jazz, whatever fakery appeals to you. The first step is to allow yourself to fake it, which is mental. Which means that you must either call all of it fake or none of it fake. There is no middle ground. Either it is all fake or nothing is fake. And that is also mental.

If you are suffering from a complete voice loss, then, unfortunately, we will not be able to help. In order to recover the voice, we need some kind of a sound production. I was amazed when one person, after quite intensive correspondence with me via e-mails, finally called me and could not produce anything but a whisper. When I asked him what he was diagnosed with, he, to my surprise, responded with whispers that the Doctors could not find anything wrong with him. I was literally shocked with that reply. But, unfortunately, could not offer him any viable help, as no sound was present at all. Then, in my office, another man unexpectedly walked in, who actually had the sound, but there was nothing but mooing, so to speak. Apparently, he recently undergone a cancer of thyroid operation and he ended up with both vocal cords paralysed. Naturally, I told him the truth that vocal paralysis on both vocal cords is non treatable. Believe it or not, he looked at me with absolute surprise, disbelief and disappointment! Go figure! I am not sure what he expected me to say. There are a lot of things I could do non-surgically, but some things are not possible to concur even with the best abilities of the Voice Repair specialist, or any other therapist for that matter. If you remember the story of Movie Actor Christopher Reeves who fell down from the horse and ended up with quadriplegia. No doubts, he was surrounded by the best doctors and definitely had no lack of money to hire any help he needed; but, evidently, nobody could help him. The best they could do is to keep him positive and reasonably comfortable. Conversely, after the initial shock from both parties, my prospective client and my own, I advised him that I could improve the quality of his life and no doubts his confidence, by making him pronounce and announce his words somewhat clearer and to be more understood. I told him, in a nutshell, how I will go about it, and that my method is completely natural, holistic and alternative to any medical interventions. I told him that I will restructure his voice in a different set of muscles and take it away from the vocal box to the place where his sound will become more amplified and less strained. I explained to him how that wholesome mechanism, which I will instill into his psyche, will allow his voice to work in the fullest capacity possible and to the best of its ability. He left and the next day wrote to me an e-mail where he expressed that he could not understand how his voice will work outside of his vocal cords. In his e-mail he expressed that he is hoping that one day his voice will come back fully. On that note, I told him that I wished him all the best. It is sad, but true. That person, as many others, had absolutely no check with reality. I am sure that if any medical professionals could put Christopher Reeve back on the horse and make him a Superman again, they would. So take it from there. It's always good to have a hope, but it has to be realistic. And now, yet another case study: The person comes in with, so to speak, stage 4 of Muscle Tension Dysphonia disorder. I am sure everybody knows that, when somebody is diagnosed, for example, with stage 4 cancer, (God forbid), it pretty much means that, most likely, that person will not make it. I have to admit that, when I've heard that young woman's voice over the phone, even I got shaky. She sounded, the least to say, horrible. I offered her just a 10 hour exploratory session to open it all up and see if anything could be done. To everybody's surprise, she was responding very well to the instruction and natural herbs, which I had provided for her sessions. Her mom, who was present in the room, said that it was fascinating to watch this transformation. I was asked right away if I could offer more hours while they were residing here in Toronto for 5 days. I said yes and increased her course to 16 hours. Then they left and I did not have much feedback on the post-course events. Incidentally, on one of the weekends, my husband and I ended up in their neck of the woods. We met up and I was very pleased to hear my former student's voice which was very much so improved, but of course, was not fully back. The protocol for any voice disorder, especially of this severity, is a minimum of 30 to 40 hours of instruction and natural/holistic treatment. My former student now switched back her phone which she gave up talking on for the last year, until the completion of my Voice Repair course. I think, by itself, it was a great victory. However, to my huge disappointment, my former voice repair client still was not satisfied and kept repeating that she will only give me a reference when her voice will return fully. She only engaged, at best, on half of the protocol required. Yet, instead of acknowledging the huge victory, (at least 80% of improvement), she was stubbornly repeating over and over how her voice has not come back fully/ My response was that the gratitude and positive outlook on things would probably help her to recover her voice that much sooner. I am not sure, however, that I succeeded in my persuasion, unfortunately. And lastly, the very positive outcome of my American client who recently came to my studio for only 4 days and also for only 10 hours to fix her cyst on her throat and learn how to sing professionally. Not even half an hour to her first session with me, she inquired if I could give her more hours while she is here in town. I was able to accommodate 5 extra hours and complete the course with absolute success, however, with her understanding that she would need more hours and more treatment to be employed to achieve true and final success. Therefore, she arranged me, now coming to her, to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and conduct yet another 20 hours of instruction and treatment. Thank God for her normalcy and understanding that the screws, so to speak, still have to be tightened and a new pattern of the application of her speaking and singing voice has to be totally established. So to conclude; the normalcy and balance of the person with some kind of a voice disorder, voice loss, or whatnot, has to be present first of all. The voice repair client should outline the realistic goal and enjoy getting there.

Singing Lessons: Do People Still Have Any Dreams To Become Professional Artists, Or Did Their Passion Die With The Recession And The World, Which Is Becoming Completely Digital? Teaching here in Toronto for almost 3 and half decades, I cannot believe how the people changed with respect of their attitude, mentality, physicality and yes, dreams, which they used to have galore. Since 1980, we've been through quite a few recessions, but it never affected people in the way which I am witnessing right now. They used to possess a lot of passion and love for music. The majority of even just ordinary people, (not necessarily musicians), had dreams to become professional artists, experience the professional recording and then experience the huge urge and excitement to be able to cut a record deal. Almost on a weekly basis, the new groups, (bands) were formed. The school kids were positively occupied with the rehearsals with their group; and then, to perfect their craft, with private vocal and instrument lessons on the side. Yesterday, I spoke with one of my young adult students and asked him what his friends of the same age, (18 to 20 years old), had been doing with their leisure time. He responded that they have been searching through the websites day in and day out, trying to figure out how to make money, and then to engage, at best, in the electronic video games or, God forbid, in some negative activities. According to my student, none of his peers have any other ambitions outside of electronic engagement. The word music or singing was never even mentioned. How sad is that? I am truly missing those guys (age 16 to 25), who use to come with their guitars or base guitars with the excitement in their eyes and smile on their faces. Where did it all go and what is the problem? My personal opinion would be that, not only now we are going through a general recession, but also the music business is going through a huge recession and reformat. In Toronto, there is virtually no music industry present. Some of my clients, in the not very distant past, have gotten signed, but then were dropped off the roster of, for example, Sony, Capital and Universal records. As my clients reviled to me after the fact, that the record company let go of the majority of their staff and there were simply no music professionals left to complete my clients projects. The club owners here in Toronto have definitely lost their professional acumen and frankly, as it appears to be, their consciences as well. They never, per say, paid anything, (outside the door), to the bands for their performances, but they also never asked the bands to pay them for the privilege to play in their clubs. When one of my former students, who I had mentored to a beautiful singing performer, revealed that to me, I could not believe my ears. Her and her band were working so hard on writing, playing and recording music, and now they got deprived of showcasing their musical skills, as they were unable to pay upon demand for their performances to the club owners. It is pathetic, isn't it? How could people maintain their dreams and still possess their passion when they are not able to realize their desires and express their love for music and singing? So, our city, unfortunately, is becoming very commercial, very business oriented and, frankly, people in our city have become really skeptical and really cynical. All of these above described qualities are hardly corresponding with any artistic tendencies and inclinations. That explains why the city feels so grey, so depressed and with very low energy. I feel a great remorse and experience a great loss of fun, passion, and accomplishment, as in our times, those so called qualities are, evidently, not tangible and thus, unfortunately, not being accountable for anything anymore. What a shame!!!

When the vocal injury occurs it's definitely not a picnic for every party involved. If it happens to a regular person, who is not a singer at all, and not at all prepared that one day he/she wakes up and will sound with the hoarse raspy voice which is hardly resembling the voice which the sufferer originally possessed. Not being in agreement with that, the person starts to push all surrounding muscles like throat, neck, shoulders and chest, trying to extract some sound familiar to them. Unfortunately, the more they push, the less they accomplish. Moreover, the sounds actually gets pushed more so down and may easily get stuck at the neck, which in a short while may become an indication of what's called Muscle Tension Dysphonia. Now, clearly, the real vocal injury has occurred. Naturally, the first thought that comes to the sufferer is to get referred to ENT doctor. They wait for months for the appointment and finally arrive to the ENT specialist's office. After being examined and being diagnosed, especially with something the doctor has nothing to operate on, they are being let go with the absolute confusion and no direction how to proceed further and conquer their voice injury. So what is the alternative? The alternative is a natural and holistic practitioner who speciali... Some people are not at all open to that idea; others, with more understanding, are more than happy to embark on a proper voice/vocal technique supplemented with natural herbs and remedies. Some people truly think that the only problem they have is that their vocal anatomy is not intact, but otherwise they are fine. So if only they could get a hold of a magic pill, preferably prescribed by a medical doctor, they would be just fine and would continue their lifestyle speaking/singing with a wrong technique/application of the voice, speaking excessively loud, singing with the strained voice and colds, and consuming a lot of dairy, sweets, and red meat. Go figure!? We all wish that it would be that easy, but unfortunately, it's not as easy as it may seem. By the time the person experiences the severe symptoms, the whole body, and sometimes, the soul is also out of whack. So at this time the problem is quite deep and quite encompassing and thus has to be approached and treated holistically. By the time the person with the voice disorder finally finds an alternative help, he/she usually suffers quite a bit psychologically and emotionally. A lot of them are very tearful and feel like a failure; some of them are so depressed that they feel suicidal. No wonder though, as the voice is a great tool for communication - speaking or singing. Suddenly, these affected people are being deprived from their voice in the global understanding of that word. It actually could be quite devastating. So now these people not only need the work on their voice, but first of all, they would need to work on their mental balance, and their physical body balance (diet and what not), and then on the actual proper mechanics of the voice, which once employed, will save and protect the voice for life, and thus prevent the occurrence of this ever happening again. What price tag can you put on that?

A lot of people, especially with speaking voice problems, who are coming to me for my services, are absolutely sure that the only problem they have is their voice problem. Little do they know! Evidently, they don't perceive that the voice is the essential part of their anatomy and it is interconnected to their whole emotional, physical and mental being. Sometimes, the problem with the speaking voice could be an indication of something else happening in the physical body and their voice problem actually has been emotionally induced. Let's take, for example, spasmodic dysphonia. This particular voice disorder has very little to do with the nasty symptoms like uncontrollable spasms of the voice and loss of control of the vocal box, as the problem, in this instance, is not in the voice. The problem has neurological nature which was most likely induced by highly emotional stress and then it manifested in the physical body. The symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia, coupled with high blood pressure and highly emotional stress, could be the warning symptoms of the future stroke. If we are talking about muscle tension dysphonia, it mostly has to do with the improper conduct of one's voice. However, these people who suffer from this nasty voice disorder are usually quite highly unbalanced, hyperactive, loud and controlling. While embarking on fixing their voice, these individuals should look closely at their behavior on an everyday bases.They should reassess their communication and habitation with the people they come into contact with regularly or otherwise. These types of people are usually very opinionated and like to prove their point with everything they've got, so to speak. While doing that they sometimes become very loud. They actually are not noticing that they are pushing their voices to the absolute heights and limits, until they reach the point that they cannot push anymore. Now, their so called power has been taken away from them and now they feel helpless. So, as we see, the voice problem has very deep roots. The character of the person, the physical and emotional make-up of the person has a lot to do with why their voice injury occurs. Maybe, in a way, it is a blessing for those people who were on the loud side all their lives and never thought that they could, perhaps, adjust their behaviour and their lifestyle to the point of the absolute balance, so that neither the voice issue, nor any other health issues, would possess their being. And of course, there are simple cases which usually happen to singers and simply being induced by them not knowing how to conduct their speaking and singing voice. For them, once they recover their voice, the sky is the limit. Now, they acquire a proper vocal technique, which applies to speaking and singing and they are very well on their way to stardom. Yes, of course, their vocal injury also, understandably, plays with their mind and their emotions, but the roots of their vocal injury, usually are not as deep, as for people who just injured their speaking voice. The psychology of the voice/vocal injury for both categories has completely different roots and has to be approached somewhat differently. The main thing for both categories, of course, is to regain the full health and full balance and realize that the voice loss is just a symptom of something bigger and greater which has been happening to them for some time. Nevertheless, the innovative and alternative voice therapy suggests to treat the person as a whole, holistically and naturally

The life and unexpected death of the legendary comedian, Joan Rivers. Would she be alive today if she did not submit herself for a vocal operation? What a beautiful article written about the legendary Joan Rivers! When I came to Canada almost 35 years ago I was trying to watch as much TV as I could to learn the language. Although I didn't fully understand her humour at the time, I was impressed by comedian Joan Rivers. Joan had beautiful energy and a very animated personality, and she spoke very loudly with huge command and conviction in her voice. However, being a voice specialist, I immediately noted that she was using her voice incorrectly, as her voice was obviously coming out from the back of her neck and the very bottom of her throat. In all honesty, I am amazed that her voice lasted as long as it did! That said, it is evident that, genetically, she was a very strong woman with a very strong personality. In a general sense, no human voice could withstand such pressure applied onto the vocal box for a prolonged period of time. However, you could clearly hear in her performances in recent years that her voice was getting raspier and quite often she simply sounded hoarse. When that happens to a human being, especially one whose livelihood depends on his or her voice, that individual, quite often, emotionally disagrees with the situation. However, most of the time, that person intellectually understands that something has to be done about it, as there is no change without a change, so to speak. While disagreeing, however, they are trying to continuously push that voice out on the surface when, by that time, the voice has usually already been drowned deep inside in their throat. So by pushing it vigorously, they are, unfortunately, accomplishing the opposite result, as by drowning and straining that voice exponentially could bring it to the stage of no return. However, like you are stating in your article, people with voice challenges should notice the change sooner rather than later and first try to conquer it non-surgically by finding a qualified voice specialist who knows how to conduct the voice repair in a holistic manner. We live in a very fast-paced world and to accomplish something we have to move pretty fast. So the thoughts of people like John Rivers and even just of ordinary people are Let's do it now, and let's do it fast. She was probably thinking about her next upcoming performance and, nevertheless, wanted to sound nice, clean, and crisp. However, she did not realize that surgery is not necessarily the solution. The instrument might be tuned and fixed, but the player is still applying the wrong technique, trying to extract the sound from said instrument. If the greatest pianist of all time, Liberace, had been hammering his beautiful pink Grand Piano he would have broken it to pieces and would have no instrument to show his best piano skills. It takes two the instrument and the player. The instrument has to be sound and the player has to be adequate. The player also must be able to extract the maximum capacity of that given instrument. So in the case of the voice, the speaker or singer has to be able also to extract the maximum capacity of their voice and with no pain or strain on the vocal anatomy. I always say, work smart, not hard, and with minimum effort accomplish the maximum result. Also, work upon the design and do not play it by ear. That said, be professional on every level.

TMV Privacy Administration, Community Professionalism and Communication Etiquette. Hello and Welcome to The Modern Vocalist.com, The #1 Community for Singers on the Web!! As we continue to grow our membership base around the world it is important that we maintain a level of Privacy, Professionalism, Courtesy and Etiquette when it comes to communicating with each other within TMV. 1) PRIVACY ADMINISTRATION: A great feature within your TMV Profile Page is the ability to regulate the PRIVACY and Administrative controls of certain aspects of your profile within your Settings. We have received a number of inquiries asking if these types of features are available, so we thought we would communicate this benefit more widely. For example, you can monitor and approve the comments being posted to your profile page: Do you want to approve comments before they appear on your comment wall? Yes Let me approve comments first No Publish comments immediately This feature allows individuals to review comments prior to them being posted to your page. So you can approve the comments you like, but also gives you the ability to delete those comments that you don’t want posted to your personal profile page. Please take a look under Settings within your profile page and set your "Privacy" Settings accordingly. 2) COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALISM: It is extremely important to the Executive staff of TMV to keep the content within the community professional, that is not to say that we don't encourage debate within the forum, potentially controversial, yet thought provoking vocal related Blogs, and the publishing of opinions, that may not necessarily, represent the perspective of the majority. However, it is our first and foremost intention to keep the content within TMV vocally relevant and artistically inspirational. With this said, The Modern Vocalist reserves the right to Freeze, Ban, or delete any content posted by any members that we feel is inappropriate in meeting with the standards of our community. 3) COMMUNICATION ETIQUETTE: It is the intention of TMV to provide a social community platform that facilitates the opportunity for individuals to NETWORK, SHARE, ENGAGE & CONTRIBUTE. The power of the internet has given us a unique opportunity to pull together some of the best vocal enthusiast professionals from around the world. TMV prides itself on making the general public aware that we have assembled this credible community of International Vocal Subject Matter Experts and its Members into a professional vocal community. We in turn expect that our Subject Matter Experts will engage with members, and vice versa, in a professional and personal manner. Because we represent all vocal genres without bias, the many different techniques, instructors, content and publications available will appeal differently amongst our international community. Distributing mass or bulk emails, generic comments and/or postings that encourage the purchase of products or services, HTML based images linked to external production sites is discouraged. However, posting greetings and encouraging members to view your profile page is acceptible. It is suggested that both Subject Matter Experts and Members looking to engage one another-peer to peer, should use the internal mail system provided to you by TMV. These communications, should include relevant information, supporting the reason for the correspondence. Subject Matter Experts have every right to start a group, begin a forum discussion to provide a place to discuss your specifics. Lastly, TMV is here for many reasons; networking, bringing the world together, fun, research & science and soon we will be inviting the pro audio industry to our community. TMV is also here as a benefit to our Subject Matter Experts who put time and energy into posting educational and informative blogs. Lets be clear on this point, its OK to bring attention to your studio, product or service, but we ask that you do so in a tactful and respectful way. This means, always try to offer some educational content or information that benefits everyone FIRST, before drawing attention to your service. If you do decide to draw attention to your service, do so in a tactful, classy way. Its really quite simple. This should not be construed as a deterrent for posting comments on personal profile pages, blogs or participating in the forum discussions, it is simply the suggested method for soliciting professional peer to peer communication where there is an offer to provide service, a notification of content for sale, or a sincere interest in providing additional networking opportunities. We are so appreciative of the contributions being made and the relationships we are all forming. We are working very hard here at TMV to provide the highest quality of service to our members. Please feel free to submit feedback at any time, we are always listening!! Sincerely, The Executive Staff of The Modern Vocalist.com info@themodernvocalist.com

I would like to share with the singing public my own struggle with changing styles and sound from opera to pop. I teach from my own experience. I may be an expert today, but I am never far from my client's struggles and frustrations. It doesn't matter who the singer is, everyone at some point in their career has struggled with their voice in some way. Early on, even someone as gifted as Celine Dion had her own fair share of struggle with a tongue that wouldn't quit pulling back when singing, trapping her higher tones. (The culprit: her native language). Then there are those famed artists who claim to never have taken a lesson. Yet they have been seen by the public taking lessons with the some of the best teachers around. For me the issue isn't about who I teach. The issue is whether I can teach you how to sing, sing well, and without injuring yourself. Can I educate you well enough to become your own teacher? Yes. I was one of those who came out of the womb with an extremely gifted classical voice. At 12, I was seen in a Beverly Hills Elementary school production of The Magic Flute. After that appearance, many teachers wanted to teach me but I was still very young, and not that interested. I knew I already had a gift. My thinking was, Why do I need lessons? Yet at 16, I noticed I couldn't sing the songs I wanted to sing. My voice was too operatic for Pop, Pop/Rock, or Country. Now it was time for lessons. It got very depressing. Whenever I tried singing other styles, I felt horribly embarrassed. I could never figure out how the Mariah Carey's, Whitney Houston's, or Celine Dion's could belt like they did without choking! I sounded like a wannabe. Back then, teachers mostly taught classically. Very few were teaching how to sing contemporary music. All of my teachers (3) were those who sang with the Met and the Los Angeles Opera and couldn't teach me how to change styles. They told me it was best to stick with the classical training especially since my voice was a right fit, said I shouldn't mess around with the beauty of my sound or I might lose it. They scared me. Still hoping my voice would magically transform through lessons, I continued with the classical. Since technical perfection is a must when singing opera, there were times when if I didn't sing it right, I'd walk away from lessons feeling not good enough, stupid, or that something was wrong with me. It certainly wasn't helping me with the songs I so desired to be able to sing. It wasn't fun anymore. My voice became a liability, a limitation, rather than a gift. So humiliating to sing anything but opera, I stopped singing songs for anyone. I didn't want you to hear me attempt any other style while I still sounded like an opera singer for fear of what you'd think and say. When I finally made the decision to become a teacher, I also made the decision to become the very best teacher I could possibly become. This meant I was going to have to learn how to change my sound and style. I wanted to be able to teach anyone, no matter the style. Early on as a teacher I found out I had an extraordinarily gifted ear. It has become my greatest tool as an instructor and coach. They call it clairaudience. With my ears I am able to visualize exactly what's happening inside the singer that keeps them from having their voice the way they desire to sing and be heard. I went for lessons with two or three teachers as contemporary techniques became more popular. But after a couple of lessons and listening back to my tapes, I could hear things that the teachers weren't. Because of this, I lost faith in their ears. I trusted mine more. Additionally, I still wasn't getting what they were physically asking me to do to change my sound. This is when I came to a decision that wasn't easy to make; a very scary and what felt like unsafe proposition: to train myself. If I was so good at training you, why not train me? Out came the tapes and tape recorder. The recorder my student, and me, the teacher/guide. I treated those tapes as if I were listening to one of my students and began making the proper corrections. I probably read about 75 books and hordes of articles, internet and print, on vocal technique. I tried everything suggested and was obsessed with finding out what worked for me, what didn't, and why. I soon realized that singing in different styles wasn't so much about changing the sound of my voice as it was about changing the way I shaped the vowels, which also changes the placement. The process of changing sense-memorized habits was nothing short of grueling, but I was determined to never give up - no matter what. I wanted to be able to cover a spectrum of different styles. Habits are usually subconscious. They are so ingrained that it's not easy to ask someone to, for example, quit biting their nails or cracking their knuckles in an instant. Nope, not going to happen. To break a habit takes concentrated effort. Through this work I learned the true meaning of that word. Letting go of my own second-nature habits made me feel like my voice was at zero, as if I never had a gifted voice. I felt like many of my students do about their own voices when they come to me. The first thing I had to do was learn to stop listening to myself. Okay, yeah, that's like asking someone to leave his or her ego at the door - nearly impossible. But I transfered my awareness to listening from the outside, as if I were another person, and if it was wrong, I re-recorded until it was right. The tape never lies. I used vocalises to change vowel shaping, placement, and ways of support to create new sense-memorized habits. All of these were different from those used for classical singing. Vocalises became my weapon, my voice the competition, and I was going to win. Yes, I had my bed flailing days, days when I wanted to throw the tape and the recorder out the window. But nothing could ever stop me from continuing to try, continuing to practice, and continuing until I got it. After one of these breakdowns, I would be up in the morning practicing and right back at it again. I was relentless and determined. I don't really think I knew how competitive I was until I went on this expansive journey. Vocalises have now become my warm-ups. On any given day, just one vocalise can reveal where my voice is weak and needs work. Since the voice lives inside the body, you can never predict from day to day until you start exercising. Quickly discerning which area might need the most work, I can take an exercise and work that area until my voice opens up. Then I re-check by choosing a vocalise to sing through my entire range. What I've discovered is that by working in only one area, it often helps open all my registers. This is because I am practicing my new habits, and not my "sound" per se. A habit successfully changed in one area automatically changes it in another. Amazingly it is with this change of habits that a voice develops on its own. It's an automatic end result. Today, I don't have to think about my voice when I sing. I do, however, still have to vocalize with exercises. Old habits have a way of sneaking back in when you least expect them. So I, for one, have to keep after them. As long as I am reminding myself with this form of repetition, I can sing the songs I love quite well and it makes me very, very happy. I can't tell you how cool it is, when there were times I thought it would never happen. For additional style, I learned to listen for specific pronunciation rather than to the perceived sound of someone else's voice and trying to imitate it. I found pronunciation to be key to any given style. Imitating sound only kept me kept me pushing and forcing my voice. Again, very embarrassing. To get what I have today, the new way had to become the only way second nature to me, like opera. I am still a technical singer because I love to play with tones, and to be on pitch. I don't like the way I sound when I deviate into something that really isn't me. In my mind there are two types of singers: the technical and the stylistically artistic, and both are good. Technical singers make great session artists and are in demand because of it. Stardom, in my opinion, comes to those who seem to have the gift of MAGIC on stage or recording, artistically, stylistically, and as a performer. Some will still criticize me for sounding technical, not realizing that I prefer this for my own sound and style. It's how I love to sing because I can - and not everyone can. I don't need auto-tune. When I record a song, I can usually do it in an hour, and an a capella only takes 5 minutes. I'm proud that I can get it in one take. I did become the teacher I always wanted to become. I have a lot of fun singing today, and even more fun teaching my methods to clients, from the gifted to those who have to work for every iimprovement. Yes, it was a difficult journey and one I've noticed seems to be harder than going the other direction: from pop to opera. There were many ups and downs along the way. But everyone I teach is so happy to be on the road and keep forging onward. Those who have stuck it out have great voices and careers today. Dena Murray SME The Modern Vocalist, Voice Teacher/Coach, and Published Author www.denamurray.com www.facebook.com/dena murray

Vocal distortion always gets a good clap at my Master Class. I don't know exactly why it gets such an excited response from participants, but I think it has to do do with the primitive desire of the audience "see blood" in the show. Not literally of course, but figurative. It sounds dangerous and is thrilling. Of course we cannot give the audience real blood, but we can train techniques that create the illusion that we are in regards to the ever popular vocal effect, distortion. Healthy distortion is produced by creating noise in the vocal tract, not by grinding tissue and that is the key to successful, vocal distortion techniques. The work flow and techniques for producing the three kinds of distortion below are provided in my new vocal technique training system,"The Four Pillars of Singing" 2.0 with full video demonstrations and book guidelines. Below is a video moment from the recent TVS Masterclass in Munich, Germany. The event was sponsored by RODE Microphones, TC-Helicon and our TVS Master Certified Instructor in Germany, Anke Lopez and her German team. This is a demonstration of three kinds of vocal distortion we teach at The Vocalist Studio. "Overlay" Distortion. "Overlay" Distortion with Husk "ESDI" (Extreme Scream Distortion Inhale).

Recently I was asked to be a guest on a podcast for singers and voice professionals. My role was to answer any questions about natural voice care from the callers. One of the most asked about issues, oddly enough, was allergies and how to deal with them naturally and safely without affecting the voice. As surprised as I was, the podcast prompted me to write this article about dealing with allergies and singing naturally. Firstly, we must clarify what we are really focusing on. "Allergies" come in many forms shapes and sizes. My experience has been that most people I work with have, first and foremost, FOOD ALLERGIES! After a number of tests for food allergies, almost everyone discovers that what they have been eating is the problem. While this is not the case for all, it seems to be for most. Eliminating white sugar, processed foods, artificial sweeteners, white flour, soda, gluten and alcohol from ones diet does wonders for overall health and vocal health. That being said, I am going to give you a number of herbs that can help when you may have allergies affecting your vocal mechanism. You may have some of these already in your cupboard so the cure may be closer than you think. Chamomile-Chamomile has been used for ages as a treatment for allergies, in particular the German variety due to a chief compound within the chamomile called azulene. This compound when tested on guinea pigs has been shown to prevent allergic seizures for up to an hour after it was administered. It is also very useful when used to relieve hay fever. Drinking 3-4 cups a day during allergy season can dramatically help your allergies not to mention the calming, digestive and healing effects i has on your whole body. You may also try inhaling chamomile as a steam for ten to fifteen minutes before going to sleep at night. Fenugreek-Fenugreek seed is particularly useful for hay fever attacks. Soak the seeds in some filtered water for four to five hours, then boil the soaked seed for 2-3 minutes and drink one cup a day during the allergy season. You may find you have very few allergic attacks as before. As an added bonus Fenugreek is a wonderful healing herb.When used as a tea it is an excellent gargle for a sore throat and will also help expel mucus from the bronchial passages. Honey-Honey has been found to have properties that help with allergies. One helpful procedure I found doesn't cure hay fever and allergies but claims to drastically reduce them during allergy season. The person who gave me this remedy said you must follow the directions exactly as it only seems to work this way. Start this procedure one month before allergy season starts. Begin by taking one teaspoonful of honey after each meal. Then every other day get a small, waxy piece of actual honeycomb and chew on it for a couple of hours in between meals. It sounds easy, effective and inexpensive to me. You will also end up benefiting from all the other wonderful healing agents found in honey as well. The following are two combinations of herbs that when mixed equally and brewed as a tea are an excellent remedy for helping allergies. 1. Black Cohosh, Blessed Thistle, Pleurisy Root, Skullcap 2. Comfrey, Fenugreek I have known many colleagues, speakers, teachers and presenters who have used variations of all of the above mentioned remedies for allergies. They are effective and also very helpful in overall body healing. As always, consult a qualified herbal practitioner and your medical doctor if you are mixing herbs and medications. Use good judgement and moderation when trying new formulas or herbal remedies for your vocal health. I wish you the best on your quest for Superior Vocal Health.

TMV Team, If you have not done so yet, please register for our forum. The forum is in some ways, the heart of our web site and its where the most discussions about voice technique and vocal technology take place. We have invested a special effort to make sure that TMV doesnt just have "any old" forum, but offers the most robust, feature rich forum in the world, the "FluxBB" system is the best thats out there. It has been rated as the number one forum by independent industry professionals that measure message board technology. So click on "TMV Forum" and register. Post a few questions to help us get some activity working. Also, be sure to upload your Avatar (a picture of you), create your signature and go to "Profile" and look at "Email Digest"... The email digest is an important feature that will allow you to get a summary of all discussions every day or week sent to your inbox. Its the best way to stay involved in the TMV forum. The Best Forum Features in the World: - Intuitive User Interface. - Daily & Weekly digests send you summaries directly to your inbox if you choose. - Reputation rating of members and their posting. - Ranking for the forum's most active members. - Skins. - Avatars - Embed YouTube & Google video code right into the posting.

Upcoming SPOTLIGHT VIDEOS in the following weeks : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I welcome the input of ALL of our members. If you feel that one of our members' videos qualify for a SPOTLIGHT VIDEO, feel free to contact me! Note: To qualify for a Spotlight Video the video MUST be live. Either onstage, in the studio, videos with backing tracks, or videos that contain "instructional material" (i.e. instructional videos by our coaches, Subject Matter Experts {SME's}, etc.). The easiest way to view all of our members videos is to scroll down to Featured Videos (on the Social Home Page, of course), then in the lower right-hand corner click on >> View All. You can also view video submissions via the TMV World Forum. The videos are typically in the Review and Critique My Singing section. Of course, you must sign up for the forum as well. To view PAST Spotlighted videos, click on my Article >> The Modern Vocalist Spotlight Videos, which can be found under Articles and Essay. Again, this is an invitation to encourage our membership to become more involved in TMV World, AND, to view the many astounding videos that have been submitted by our members !!! Of course, I encourage YOU, our valued member, to submit YOUR video(s)! (Updated 19 October 2014) Warmest Regards, Adolph Adolph C. Namlik Executive Director ~ The Modern Vocalist World chief188@hughes.net

To my knowledge, the majority of people love to sing. Even those who cannot sing and others who can and have a perfectly good full-time job and respected Singing. profession, would drop all of it without any hesitation in the nick of time to make their living doing what they love the most So let's say, out of 90% of people who would do the above, only 1% or 2% realize their dream. We all know that it is extremely difficult to succeed in the music business and make a living out of it; however, it is not impossible. If the person has the true music talent, good voice, positive attitude and the vision of their future success, they could do it. However, they have to understand that with all of the prerequisites described above, if they don't possess the right vocal technique, they may ruin their precious voice right before succeeding in their vocal performance career. A lot of Ballet Dancers and Figure Skaters also initially possess their talent for their fields. Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the best Russian dancers of all time, would not become the greatest well-known dancer if he did not attend the prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy of St. Peterborough(a.k.a., Leningrad). He has learned the best techniques available to him and, combined with his enormous talent, he became a very famous and very well-known dancer.However, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOAFsU2kWPw However, in the singing field, it is presumed that the talent for music and singing is enough to embark on a successful vocal performance career. And strangely enough, sometimes it is enough; but what happens later could turn into complete tragedy. In the midst of the, seem to be successful career, tours, performances, recordings and etc, the precious voice suddenly gives out and sometimes disappears altogether. So the contracts are signed, the record deal is executed, but the singer cannot produce what was expected from him/her. Look at the British singer – Adele, who ended up with bleeding polyps on her vocal cords. Obviously, the vocal cords were overused and over-abused and, in my opinion, it has happened due to the poor vocal technique. Great girl, beautiful personality, enormous musical and song writing talent, but the lack of the knowledge of proper voice application nearly killed her career and her health. I'm sure, my reader that you would agree with me that, after that polyp removal operation, Adele never sounded the same, and clearly to me, sounded very timid and very scared. So these are my tips: Do not ever embark on any singing unless you know how to power your voice efficiently and with no pain or strain on your vocal anatomy. I don't think that somebody like Patrick Chan would embark on jumping a triple axle or quad without knowing, in details, and first in theory, how to execute it properly without breaking any parts of his anatomy. So whether you are a beginner or a professional singer, you still need to know what you are doing and learn all the secrets of your trade, if you want to avoid a great disappointment and even a loss of your singing career all together. In my next blog, (Part 2), I will talk more about the actual vocal technique which should be applied at all given times when the person opens up their mouth to sing and, of course, to speak, as the wrong application of a speaking voice could easily kill the singing voice. But I will talk about that in the next blog to come.

John Scott and I began an email discussion about proper breathing and how to properly teach proper breathing. We thought you would all benefit from a more public discussion. Please join us! Diaphragmatic breathing is a natural function of the body. It works perfectly under perfect circumstances and can be trained to function perfectly under less-than-perfect circumstances. We begin life with a perfectly functioning voice. The human body, barring congenital defect or system-altering accident, is a perfect vocal instrument from the moment of birth. As all parents know, an infant can coo, cry, babble and scream all night long without vocal fatigue, hoarseness or strain. Watch a sleeping infant to see the ribcage open and contract, the belly rise and fall as the baby naturally breathes diaphragmatically. Infants and young children have perfect, erect posture that allows the voice to function naturally with no muscular tension. The absence of vocal strain testifies to a naturally functioning instrument. Are you with me so far? None of the bad postural habits and tensions have taken up residence in a young child's body. Perfect alignment leaves the child's instrument relaxed and open and therefore, free to produce sound with ease. So the first step in returning to proper diaphragmatic breathing is to align the spine. Then the instrument has at least a chance of returning to natural function. I use one specific exercise, the candle exercise, to train diaphragmatic breathing to become a habit. Take a look in the mirror. What does your posture look like? Is your instrument in good alignment? I'm always asked if breathing should be in and up or down and out. Meaning does the abdomen pull in and up or push down and out as you are making sound. My answer to that is, Yes. Because what you really want is the body to be responding to the need to move breath while creating sound. Keep in mind for this discussion that your diaphragm, located inside the ribcage, is responsible for the inhale. Diaphragm drops to create space for fresh air. The abdominal muscles are responsible for the exhale, supporting the diaphragm in the process. The body will respond to most anything you ask of it, within reason. When you need to blow out a candle, you take a simple inhale and blow air directly at the candle. Did you need to think about diaphragmatic breathing to get the candle to go out? Try it right now. Candle exercises exploit the natural action of blowing out a candle by repeating it at a steady rhythm to make diaphragmatic breathing a habit to convince mind and body that diaphragmatic breathing can be simple and efficient. With consistent practice of the Candle Exercise, diaphragmatic breathing becomes a reliable habit. Your thumb becomes the candle. Hold it mid-chest about 6 from your body. With head on top of shoulders, blow the candle out with 3 short blasts of air, releasing the jaw in between each blast. Watch in a mirror to ensure that the shoulders stay still and your body stays aligned. How does it work for you? Give the candle exercise a try and join in this discussion.

Can you use it and not lose it? As you may know from experience, powerful singing is a style that seems plagued by its own punishment - strain, hoarseness, laryngitis, throat discomfort, loss of upper range, or a frequent need to "clear your throat." Severe cases may result in nodes (calluses on the inner rims of vocal folds) or polyps (blisters on the tops or undersides of the vocal folds), which are painful and may restrict your singing. Metal and Rock singers often have the attitude that training will make them sound too pretty. So not knowing what else to do, they bash and trash their voice resulting in canceled gigs, recording sessions or whole tours. Does singing powerfully automatically mean that you'll wreck your voice? The good news is that it's not what sounds you make, but how you make them that will save your voice! Through over 40 years of my own vocal performance, and over 30 years of vocal research and coaching others, I've found there are techniques that allow you to sing any style you want and without the bad effects. Vocal Blow-Out Vocal blow-out stems from both external and internal conditions. The main external conditions are: late hours, insufficient rest, bad nutrition, alcohol, drugs, smoky clubs, PA and monitor problems, incorrect microphone design for your voice, and competing with band volume (sigh). The key factor, however, is internal: improper use of your vocal instrument when singing powerfully. To scope this out and get a handle on it, an understanding of your instrument is necessary. Vocal Basics Vocal sound, as you may already know, is the result of the vibration of your vocal folds (often called "vocal cords" but they're not cords; they're folds and that's their actual name). The inside of your throat has two vertical tubes; one positioned in front of the other. The tube in front is for air (trachea), while the one for swallowing food (esophagus) runs behind it, more in the center of your throat. Your two vocal folds are positioned just behind your Adam's apple and lie horizontally across the inside of your trachea. They are coated with mucous membrane and come equipped with their own tuning pegs, which are connected to the back ends of the folds. The folds remain open during regular breathing. But for every sound you make, their tuning pegs automatically pivot and close the folds so they are lying rim to rim next to each other. With each sound you decide to make, the muscles of the folds prepare and adjust by stretching, thinning and shortening the length of the rim that will vibrate. Higher pitches require: less air, the folds to stretch, thin out, and a shorter length of them to vibrate. For low notes, the reverse is true. The principle involved is similar to fretting the strings on a guitar a shorter length and thinner string gives faster vibrations = higher pitches, a fatter string and longer length gives slower vibrations = lower pitches. Examining the Problem To produce vocal sound, air is released from your lungs and vibrates your stretched and closed vocal folds. If you push too much air up against and through the folds, too much pressure is created. The muscles of your folds will tighten, your throat muscles tense, and your problems begin. Many singers unconsciously associate tension with big emotion and hard singing. For your sound to be big, just the opposite is needed. The louder and harder your sound, the more resonance is needed. If your throat and tongue tighten or your mouth closes, you shut down your acoustic chamber and there goes the resonance. The stress created by the push of excess air pressure and muscle tension can cause an irritation and swelling of your folds. The result is usually: hoarseness, power loss, range shrinkage, and other difficulties, including a strained and off pitch-voice. I work with several techniques that permit powerful singing while eliminating the risk of vocal blow-out. While all the techniques aren't possible to fully detail in this short article, you'll find it helpful to apply the following. Self Test Try saying the word "how." Put extra emphasis on the "H" as you do so. Now sing the word in the same way. Notice how emphasizing the "H" makes your throat feel and your voice sound. Sing the word again, and this time, as you sustain the tone, form the "W." Decide if you like this outcome. Now try singing it with minimal air on the "H" and instead, emphasizing the "O" (which will sound more like an "Ah" when you sing it). Notice the result. This should feel and sound better. Vowel sounds result from the vibration of your vocal folds. Consonants are created with an exhaled air stream and are formed by your mouth. If you emphasize consonants when you sing, it will push out too much air and tense the muscles in your throat and mouth. This makes it difficult for your voice to work well and you may find yourself tightening throat and tongue muscles in an effort to hit the note. This stress and strain will choke off your sound killing resonance, cause you to go off pitch or miss the note entirely, run into register break and at the very least will result in vocal fatigue. The problem usually magnifies as you sing higher and louder. Vowels, worked with correctly, will relax the acoustic chamber of your throat and mouth and increase your volume through resonance. Consonants should not be shaped at the same moment as you sing the note/vowel. They will crush your sound and tighten your vocal muscles. Let the vowels take the spotlight. Putting this to Use Go through a song you find challenging, as follows: 1) First sing the melody of the song through using the vowel Ah. Pronounce it naturally, and focus on singing the same pronunciation for each pitch. With the Ah, sing the melody very smoothly, note to note. 2) Now sing the song through using the lyrics and note any changes. 3) Next, talk through the lyrics and notice the sound of each vowel. Maintaining this awareness, sing the song. Be aware that the pronunciation of many vowels, when sung, is often different than the spelling. (eg. "I" is often pronounced more like "Ah." "Say" uses more of an "Eh" than an "A" sound.) 4) If you run into any trouble spots, chances are you're pushing and closing your mouth on the consonants that begin or end the word, while simultaneously singing the vowel. 5) Sing that word or phrase again, focusing on the vowel and letting the consonant(s) take a secondary role. 6) On any melody note that you sustain, such as at the end of a phrase, notice; are you closing your mouth prematurely simultaneously ending the word, or are you letting the vowel sound sustain? Try it both ways and decide which you like better. Practicing with this new awareness may at first take some extra thought. But it soon becomes second nature, while your sound is enhanced and singing the way you want becomes easier! You will find more information and the exercises you need for powerful singing in my book and CD course: The Contemporary Vocalist. Until next time, Jeannie Deva www.JeannieDeva.com c. 2009 All Rights Reserved Jeannie Deva, celebrity vocal coach on House of Carters Reality Show on E! Entertainment TV, and Idol Chat on TV Guide Station is an international vocalist, teacher of voice teachers, recording session vocal specialist, and author. She is the innovator of The Deva Method, founder of Jeannie Deva Voice Studios and author of the internationally acclaimed book and CD series: The Contemporary Vocalist. With a network of teachers certified in her method, clients include singers on labels such as MCA, Sony and CBS, and include Grammy Award Winners, Nominee Harriet Schock, Magic Dick and J. Geils, members from the J. Geils band, Foghat, the International Touring cast of Fame, Wicked, Lion King and Broadway's Grease, along with singers for Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias. Jeannie's private voice studio is located in Los Angeles, California and she teaches singers across the globe via web cam online. For information on services, Deva Method studio locations or voice enhancement products by Jeannie Deva: www.JeannieDeva.com

Here is a little essay from my training system, The Four Pillars of Singing... THE SINGING VOICE vs. the speaking voice At The Vocalist Studio, we don't warm up our voices, more accurately, we warm up to get into our singing voices. If vocalists want to achieve a profound increase in range and enjoy overtones with absolute physical freedom from gripping and inefficient physical ticks, the modern vocalist must learn how to get into his/her "singing voice" and get out of the speaking voice. The speaking voice and all the bodily responses that produce speech is not a platform for producing the singing voice. When a singer lacks the knowledge and practice of a legitimate voice technique, the brain will send creative commands from the right brain that can not be effectively executed because there simply is no learned behavior or coordinated muscle memory responses developed to drive the singing voice. When this happens, an internal battle between the well intended right brain signals and untrained, physical limitations of the body are out of synch. Yet the show must go one and the body must respond, so it does so by hurling the speaking voice at complex melodic ideas that require the muscles, normally facilitated for speech, to respond in an extraordinary way, it is not designed to do. This is an approach that is inevitably doomed. Consider this perspective. The Human larynx did evolve to produce speech, but it did not evolve to be able to produce vocal overtones of great volumes, definitive of a singing voice. Unlike animals born to produce vocal overtones, such as whales and birds, the ability to produce powerful vocal overtones and project our communications to great distances, were never critical to the survival of the human race. We don't need to know how to sing to survive, or to feed and breed, like other animals. The point is that students of singing must spend a lot of energy training to facilitate the physics that will transform thier bodies into wind instruments that can produce vocal overtones. To be sure, the process of learning how to sing and the experience of teaching people how to sing, is an abstract endeavor. However, with practice and physical work outs, the body can be trained to produce the most beautiful and effective overtones of all the animals on Earth and transform a mechanism facilitated for speech, into a system that is the most beautiful instrument of all. It is widely agreed by musicologists and music lovers of all points of reference that the human singing voice, when properly aligned, is the most beautiful and most versatile instrument of all, capable of producing athletic feats that no other musical instrument can. Summary The singing voice and the speaking voice are two very different kinds of vocal systems. The speaking voice and all the physical attributes involved in producing speech are not going to drive the singing voice and support modern vocal applications. Getting into your singing voice is an abstract art form and therefore, in order to train a modern vocalist, we must work to develop new muscle memory responses and increase muscular strength in key areas of the larynx to transform a vocal system evolved to facilitate speech, into a system that can sing.

The Royans Professional Vocal School, (a.k.a, The Royans School For The Musical Performing Arts), has been in existence for over 30 years now. We opened it on February 15th, 1984 as The Children's School Of Music. But then, several years later, it suddenly turned into the Adult School of Music with only a few children on our roaster. In 1987, it, literally, turned into an adult Rock School. We had a galore of rock bands, consisting of guitar, bass guitar and drum players. All of them desperately wanted to learn how to sing, as singing is truly a good asset for a band musician to have, and it also makes them much more marketable for that matter. Now we had Big Children in our roster, so to speak. And truly, when I was pulling out those voices that were often stuck in novice, (and not so novice) singers throats, necks and shoulders, the little boy or girl would practically appear in front of my very eyes, figuratively speaking, of course. Interestingly enough, some of them could not walk and chew the gum at the same time, and thus were experiencing difficulties with taking the instructions. I could always rightfully guess if, in their childhood, they were actually taking any classes like Ballet, Gymnastics, Figure Skating, etc. Those who did, were by far more coordinated, more focused, and could connect the mental visualization with their motor skills. The Vocal Science Technique requires the integration and synergy between mental, physical, emotional and vocal components. All of our speech and singing exercises are coupled with certain moves, which help with the alignment between the subconscious mind, conscious mind, physical body and the voice as an aimed outcome. If the child, or now the adult for that matter, have been accustomed to think and act simultaneously and already have had a good prerequisite with respect of connecting their thoughts, (with the speed of a bullet, nevertheless), with their physical movements, independently of their vocal abilities; they would be ahead of those who have not been trained with extra curriculum, and thus would not be able to follow the instructions with the same flying colors. The moral of it is: Give your child all possible opportunities to develop their mental and physical abilities to the max. Singing lessons in Toronto, or anywhere for that matter, and at any age would be the perfect tool to achieve the above. Keep them busy, keep them safe and keep them out of trouble. They will thank you when they enter adulthood.